Hello everyone, I am a very uncommitted writer who works on things in spurts and was going to do my rankings of MVPs then realized there were sim differences so ended up changing up on that will probably have a look at it again just divide it by sims tho. This is a lot of senseless writing but here it is.


Here I am bringing you a rivalry article of Literally Wizard of the Nevada Battleborn and Chicago Syndicate. Then his rival Teemu Salami (@swoosh) of the Detroit Falcons and the Toronto North Stars. Both players will be moving up to the big leagues this coming season so lets have a look at how the two players fared in their time in the J’s. 


Both players were drafted in S74 with Wizard being drafted 10th overall in the J’s and Teemu Salami being drafted 35th Overall which was an absolute steal I will add now. Credit to swoosh hes a great dude and to see him go this low was wild, he is truly a great user so glad to see he bounced up when SHL draft came around. This is a rivalry built on pure friendship just so everyone knows this article is for fun it has swoosh approval. With that lets get into S74.



In S74, Wizard had a considerably larger amount of time on the ice which can be seen as reflected through his stats. Salami spent just 833 on the ice where Wizard spent 1285 as a total. So comparatively we can most likely all agree that Wizard will have more stats for this season so without further ado lets jump into the breakdown of offensive stats for the two.


Wizard had 24 Goals, 40 Assists for a total of 64 points whereas Salami had 24 goals, 20 assists with a total of 44 points which shows something interesting. Salami was rather efficient whereas Wizard had the volume. Well upon actually looking further, Wizard was more efficient shooting with less shots and a better shooting percentage by 1% so while the difference is minor it is interesting to note. The team overall was more efficient when Salami was on floor versus when Wizard was on the floor boasting a +14 vs +7 both rookies at the time boasting a positive +/-.


An interesting note is Teemu Salami only had one point that was when the team was not at even strength whereas Wizard had a total of 19 Power Play Points and 3 Short Handed Points. Salami had spent less than 15 seconds on average on the ice during Power Plays, causing for him to not be able to profit during these golden opportunities. 


Now when looking to see which of the two had a good run defensively we look at three main categories for forwards, shots blocked, takeaways and hits. In S74 Salami had 13 takeaways with 19 blocked shots and 94 hits. Which is pretty good all around for a rookie winger. In S74 Wizard had 11 blocked shots, 85 hits and 38 takeaways. Which at first glance seems really good with all of those takeaways then you realize Wizard also had 81 giveaways which definitely balances out the number of his 38 takeaways. In this category I would say Salami takes the cake as a better all around defensive player despite what the game ratings say Salami was efficient on defense with less minutes than Wizard.

Overall, I think Wizard takes the cake in S74 with tacking on RotY it feels almost certain that Wizard takes an early lead in the Salami vs Wizard days. But in head to head matchups, Detroit and Nevada tied at 3 games a piece during the regular season making the two even in their play against each other.

Moving onto S75, both players stayed with their minor teams putting on a better season than their last. They stepped up in their own ways as Wizard saw a 150 minute increase from last season to 1408 minutes on the ice whereas Salami jumped 300 minutes to 1161. Wizard still saw a lot more of the ice than Salami so these stats will be unbalanced but still interesting to look at. 


Starting on the offensive side, both players tied at 22 goals which shows how efficient Salami was at scoring goals, with such little time on the ice compared to Wizard. However offensively the major difference came in Assists where Wizard had 51 and Salami only had 20 causing a 73 to 42 point differential. Salami did however win in one statistic which was +/- with Wizard coming in at a whopping -18 and Salami with a +5 so two very different outcomes. When looking at Power Play, Wizard was far more successful in the category with a total of 31 points from Power Play with Salami having only 7. These two did however tie on shorthanded points with one a piece as neither found success in the short handed formation.


Now when we look into the defensive side quite frankly neither was great. Looking at takeaways Wizard had 55 takeaways with only 57 giveaways which is his best TA/GA ratio. Salami however had 16 takeaways and 54 giveaways which fails to reach where Wizard was at that season. Now when looking at shots blocked Salami was an absolute monster when it came to that with 38 shots blocked while Wizard had a measly 18. Looking at hits Salami had 97 which was 10 more than Wizard which I am starting to think means that while Wizard won the offensive battle, Salami won the defensive battle.


Now looking into head to head matchups between Detroit and Nevada, Detroit won 3 out of 4 games giving Swoosh the edge in head to head matchups of 6-4. 


Now we move onto S76, third year for both individuals and both saw a lot of playing time while it wasn’t exactly equal they still did. Wizard saw 1479 minutes on ice over the course of the season while Salami saw 1292 while there is still a sizable gap the gap has lessened by a pretty large amount. This season however did see Salami’s largest increase in average time on ice during Power Plays with 2 minutes and 51 seconds with his old average being 1 minute and 28 seconds. 


Now switching over to the offensive, one player took a small step back and another took a large leap forward gaining some ground on the other. Wizard had his career high goals in 34 but saw a decrease in assists by 13 which leads to a total of 38 and a grand total of 72 points which is one less than the season prior. Salami had 21 goals and 40 assists beating Wizard out in assists for the first time. With a total of 61 points this was the closest the two had been this far in their career as they have both had two very different paths to this point with Wizard being predominantly on the first line most of his career with Nevada. Salami did come out again when it came to +/- differential but both players actually came out negative this season which is the only time both come out negative in the 4 seasons. Wizard had a -26 really out there when the team struggled while Salami had a -6 which isnt good either but lets be honest -26 ain’t too nice to look at either lol. 


Now let's swing back to the defensive side of things. Wizard had 41 takeaways with 77 giveaways so he was not exactly efficient in keeping the puck on his side of the ice. Salami was not efficient either with this stat having 38 takeaways and 60 giveaways. Moral of the story we keep giving shit away on accident is that good or bad? In this case probably bad as I was averaging over a giveaway a game. Moving onto a fun fact though, Salami was one of the best defensive right wings this season with 49 blocks and 187 hits. Which is an incredible amount 4th in hits and 9th in shots blocked overall. Now Wizard though was the exact opposite; he was just crap at playing defense. Wizard regressed from his numbers last season, this time getting 17 shots blocked and 84 hits. So if it is not obvious Salami takes the defensive battle again! Wizard proves to be the better player on offense but Salami makes up for it in defense.


Now let's go to the head to head! In season 76, Nevada went 4-2 against the Falcons giving Wizard the first nod in head to head. Bringing the total record to even again with a 6 to 6 scoreline. 


Then the final season of both of our SMJHL careers we both finish with the teams that drafted us and both have our best seasons to date. I just want to say personally I loved playing for Nevada. They were a very welcoming group and despite how the end of season 77 turned out I was glad to have gotten to play for them.


Ok anyways moving on to how Teemu and Wizard did. Teemu had his best season offensively with 34 goals and 30 assists for a total of 64 points with a +/- total of 17. Salami had 18 points from power play and 4 shorthanded points, this season marked Salami's best shorthanded season with 3 goals and 1 assist. Literally Wizard had his best season by a long shot with 28 goals and 60 assists which was absolutely insane to see as I wanted a fuck ton of assists and I got a fuck ton. Wizard put up 88 points with a +/- of 6, Wizard had not gone positive in this stat since his initial rookie season. Overall Wizard was more successful in helping to score however with Salami on the ice the Falcons were more efficient. Wizard had 34 points during Power Plays and 5 points during shorthand play so overall, Wizard was very active in both. Something very interesting is that Salami had 8 game winning goals while Wizard had only 4, Salami was tied for 3rd overall in game winning goals which is a huge accomplishment. 


Now lets move to the defensive side of the stats. Both players were very good at giving the puck away with 77 and 75 giveaways respectively. Wizard however had 43 takeaways and Salami only had 31 despite having 77 giveaways, giving Wizard the edge in the TA/GA ratio. Wizard set his personal best in blocks with a whopping 27 and Salami said you know I can do that two times better than you putting up 52 blocks. Then Wizard instead of setting a career best, set a career low in hits with a total of 70 and Salami once again said I can do that shit better putting up 118 hits. Once again Salami is the better player as this Wizard doesn’t know a defensive spell to save his life. 


Then we look ahead to the head to head schedule for S77. Nevada and Detroit faced off a total of 6 times will the tie be broken… With a 4-2 line against Detroit, Nevada took the series during this season with their 4 wins. This gives Literally Wizard the W in the head to head over their J careers with a 10-8 record. 


So now who is better well in points Wizard is high and away better with 297 points over his SMJHL career versus Salami’s 211 points but Wizard did see a lot of volume compared to Salami. Defensively, Salami was far and away better with double the blocks and over 150 more hits. Wizard had 290 giveaways with 177 takeaways while Salami had 227 giveaways with 98 takeaways. I was never good at math though so I am not really sure who is better in that ratio. So in conclusion of my completely unbiased take, Literally Wizard was better and Teemu Salami smells like Salami. Which may be a good thing but I don’t know what Salami smells like.

If you want, you can take a picture with my Four Star Cup

<3

Credit to Amidships & sulovilen

Both players repping the S75 class with style, love to see it!